pikes peak community college
Program helPs retention of minority males
by debbie kelley THe gAzeTTe
Three months into his new job as president of Pikes Peak Community College, as the school year was coming to a close, Tony Kinkel came to a startling realization: 83 percent of minority males who had started college in the fall of 2006 had dropped out. “I looked at the data and said, ‘That’s unacceptable,’” Kinkel said. In August 2007, he created a new program, the Multicultural Male Retention Initiative, to stem the losses. Kinkel hired former NBA player Eddie Hughes to head the first such program at a community college in the state
and one of only a handful in the nation. From fall 2007 to this fall, retention of black males increased by 41 percent and Hispanic males by 61 percent. This school year, PPCC has 1,152 minority males enrolled, an increase of 557 over last fall. “The program works,” Kinkel said. “The results are miraculous.” The issue of keeping minority male students in college — not just locally, but nationwide — is the focus of a lunch on Tuesday that’s open to the public. The keynote speaker is Juan Williams, senior correspondent for National Public Radio, political analyst for Fox Television and author of six books. Williams calls minority male retention a “major crisis,” and not just at the college level. He cites the high school dropout rate for minority males at 50 percent, compared with 33 percent for caucasian males. Figures for college students are worse, Kinkel said. Freshman minority male college students have a 71 percent dropout rate, Kinkel said. Within that group, blacks have an 82 percent dropout rate, he said, 40 percent higher than white males. “Those are horrendous numbers,” Williams said in a recent phone interview from his Washington, D.C., office. “How could anybody think they could succeed without a high school diploma? Somebody is telling them it’s OK. It’s important for anyone concerned about rising unemployment, the growth in the prison population and the welfare system to stand up and say it’s not OK.” Without a high school diploma or G.E.D., higher education seems out of reach for minority males, Williams said, which limits employment opportunities. Numerous obstacles lead blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans and other minority males to quit college. “The reason they’re not succeeding is not necessarily academic,” Kinkel said. “It’s all the other things in their life they’re struggling with.” Williams agrees: “It’s rooted in family issues. The concepts of a long-term investment and delayed gratification — basic lessons that come from a family unit – are missing.” Both attribute the high minority dropout rate to such sociological factors as single-parent households and the lack of fathers as male mentors. “Seventy percent of blacks and 50 percent of Hispanics are born to single parents, compared with one-quarter of white children,” Williams said. “Those children don’t get the preparation and stimulation as young children. They get the idea they can make it on their own and be a rapper or basketball star.” Minority students often don’t know how to play the college game, Kinkel said, because no one in their family attended college. PPCC’s retention program is successful, Kinkel said, because it provides one-on-one counseling. “It’s in-your-face retention. Eddie Hughes accepts no excuses and sets high expectations. The kids know they can’t get anything by him because he’s been there and done that,” Kinkel said. “But it’s a two-way street. The students have responsibilities, and they’d better deliver.” Ernest Garrison, a 26-yearold black freshman at PPCC, said that without Hughes’ help, he would not have had books for his classes this year because his job in the mortgage industry isn’t providing enough income for him to afford school supplies. “After the first week, Eddie found out and somehow got me the books on loan, so I don’t look foolish and can do my homework,” Garrison said. Hughes also helped Garrison figure out his academic direction in engineering. “He has the resources to get your questions answered. Without Eddie, I would have been just going through the motions of being a student and quite possibly wasted a lot of time and credits,” Garrison said. But Kinkel said he is concerned about the future of the retention program, which could be wiped out if a November ballot initiative, Amendment 46, passes. The measure calls for ending affirmative action in state college enrollment and the awarding of state contracts. Proponents say the playing field for minorities has become more level, eliminating the need for affirmative action. Linda Chavez, honorary co-chair of the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative, believes minorities drop out of college because they often lack the academic preparation needed for them to succeed at schools that enroll them under affirmative action programs. Williams takes issue with that argument. “There are people who present affirmative action as quotas or giveaways or preferred treatment. No — it’s saying if you are qualified and come from a disadvantaged community, we’re going to make an effort to include you,” Williams said. — DETAILS WHAT: Man-Up Luncheon, presented by the Pikes Peak Community College Foundation and featuring guest speaker Juan Williams, at left, of National Public Radio and Fox Television WHEN: 11:30 a.m., Tuesday WHERE: Broadmoor West, Rocky Mountain Ballroom COST: $65 per person with proceeds benefiting the Multicultural Male Retention Initiative at Pikes Peak Community College RSVP: 329-0908
